Hopefully someone can help me with this as I'm struggling to get the answers on the official websites!

I was born in England to a Finnish mother and English father - I have a British Passport. My mother is still a Finnish citizen but mostly living in England. As far as I know my birth wasn't registered in Finland. I have been considering getting dual nationality for a long time - partly because I'm proud of my Finnish heritage but also after the UK's decision to exit the EU I'm actively looking to get it. My wife and I (she's English) are also now considering moving to Finland with our two young kids.

Q1: What would be the process to get dual nationality? Q2: does that give me any benefit/advantage if we moved to Finland?

Dual nationality

mrkstndn wrote:Hopefully someone can help me with this as I'm struggling to get the answers on the official websites!

I was born in England to a Finnish mother and English father - I have a British Passport. My mother is still a Finnish citizen but mostly living in England. As far as I know my birth wasn't registered in Finland. I have been considering getting dual nationality for a long time - partly because I'm proud of my Finnish heritage but also after the UK's decision to exit the EU I'm actively looking to get it. My wife and I (she's English) are also now considering moving to Finland with our two young kids.

Q1: What would be the process to get dual nationality? Q2: does that give me any benefit/advantage if we moved to Finland?

But then again, you won't get any help with "stuff everyone knows about" as you being a Finn should "know everything everybody knows" and "integration" stuff like getting onto a language course etc. is for "foreigners"...

Nevermind depending on your age, theres the small question over national service.

As far as moving goes - have you looked at that sheepfarmer job in Outer Hebrides? See the difference is, there's a job there.

Actually I'm looking for a sheep shearer. There is a dearth of them in southern Finland. My personal best is just under an hour for one sheep (hand shearing) and the results are not particularly brilliant: punk mohican sort of. There must be someone out there looking for a couple of hours work (only three sheep need shearing, the rest were done in the spring).

Pursuivant wrote:But then again, you won't get any help with "stuff everyone knows about" as you being a Finn should "know everything everybody knows" and "integration" stuff like getting onto a language course etc. is for "foreigners"...

Nevermind depending on your age, theres the small question over national service.

As far as moving goes - have you looked at that sheepfarmer job in Outer Hebrides? See the difference is, there's a job there.

Actually Finnish nationals are just as entitled to integration as anyone else. I know a few who did the Finnish language courses alongside the rainbow of other foreigners.

And to be fair they don't tell any of the other foreigners all that stuff people are supposed to know either. "Integration" as a concept provided by the Finnish government is a joke. They tell you nothing at all at MOL except when to turn up at classes. Then it's "here, learn your minä olen" plus six weeks of work practice, chosen by the student, and half the students are canny enough to pick something easy with no Finnish language required. Churn, churn, the machine spits out people barely able to chat about the weather, with their employment prospects not much better than before they began.

Integration is about actually getting an interactive job communicating with Finns, and a social life with Finns, and in Finland neither are an easy thing to do. National service is probably the only shortcut.

Pursuivant wrote:Actually Finnish nationals are just as entitled to integration as anyone else...... to be fair they don't tell any of the other foreigners all that stuff people are supposed to know either.

I wanted to chip in to throw some lights in that claim, which is of course wanting a bit of a truth. Truth is refugees and asylum seekers are spoonfed by maahanmuuttajapalvelut offices for about two years in matters relating to social and health issues. The services are more or less the same but it's like with vip membership.

And, also In my case, as I had already lived in Finland for over 3 years (as a student)..didn't even get the integration program for good or bad..I was labeled a 'job seeker' on the spot by TE tomisto. I was seen to have already integrated into the society or something in their eyes. So, one cannot simply put all foreigners into one single basket.

A child acquires jus sanguinis Finnish citizenship at birth if the child's mother is a Finnish citizen.

You just need to make sure you are registered to the Population Information System, and then you can apply for a Finnish passport (the embassy in London is the only place you can do it in the UK, and it costs £110).

Multiple citizenship is great, and pretty much means you can go back and forward between the two with no restriction. My mother was Finnish & British too and hopped between the two well before Finland joined the EU, before finally settling in the UK.

Did you find more information on this? I am currently hoping to get dual citizenship after Brexit. My father is from Finland and is still a Finnish national and uses his Finnish passport but he lives in the U.K. My mother is British and I have lived in Britain my whole life. Looking at different websites and I can't seem to find a clear answer. Some have said that I would need to be able to speak the language, is this correct? Any information would be helpful

Just go to the MIGRI pages, theres a form you can fill out for "investigating" Finnish citizenship that is pretty straight forward. Its easier if your birth was registered at the embassy at the time, but sounds pretty straight forward.

Arla wrote:Did you find more information on this? I am currently hoping to get dual citizenship after Brexit. My father is from Finland and is still a Finnish national and uses his Finnish passport but he lives in the U.K. My mother is British and I have lived in Britain my whole life. Looking at different websites and I can't seem to find a clear answer. Some have said that I would need to be able to speak the language, is this correct? Any information would be helpful

The language aspect only applies if you try to get naturalised from zero. First go down the track of claiming, or reclaiming, the Finnish citizenship that might apply/might have previously applied - according to the post directly before this one. If that fails, go down the "close Finnish ties and descendant of a Finn" permanent residency option, which grants 99% of the rights that Finnish citizens get.

Pursuivant wrote:Nevermind depending on your age, theres the small question over national service.

.

How old are you? Being married with a young child is not sufficient to exempt you from conscription.

I will ask you "rosamunda" because you seem to have an extensive knowledge of Finnish law, how does that work:

You live in f.e. UK like this guy and you already served in the UK army, then you get your Finnish Passport and nationality... but you stay in UK. what then? do you need to go forced to Finland to serve or will you have to serve as soon as you enter the country, or does serving in a foreign defensive force exempt you from service in Finnish army?

If you have professionally/national service in another country, you will be generally exempt from Finnish national service due to:- conflicting interests, and as below- some countries like USA being very stroppy about "serving in foreign military"

So, its a question of "can we trust you"... Finland has had a history of sending their own professional military to foreign academies, and legionnaires aren't shunned, but some foreigner served professionally in a foreign military getting into the Finnish... yeah, not happening.